Eighteen-year-old Clayton Aiken was preparing for a results show when someone came rushing over to him with a cell phone.

“Clay, your sister’s on the phone,” the backstage manager told him.

“Why is Lenore calling?” He wondered silently. “I called her this morning for her birthday.”

“Says it’s an emergency,” the manager continued, handing him the phone.

“Hello?” Clay said confused. He listened as his older sister, Amy, explained what was wrong. He paled when he heard the shocking news.

All the hustle and bustle backstage stopped, as people began to take note of the look on his face.

“Clay, man, is everything all right?” Nineteen-year-old Ruben Studdard asked.

Clay hands the phone back to its owner as he blinks while staring straight ahead. His gaze slowly lands upon Ruben.

“My folks…..they were in a car crash,” Clay answered once he was able to speak. “They, and two of my younger siblings, were…..were killed instantly.”

Everyone backstage remained silent, their now sympathetic gazes upon him.

“Don’t you have three younger siblings?” Carmen queried softly, after a moment of silence.

Clay nodded slowly. “Lenore’s screaming hysterically for me. It’s all she’s done since they told her.” He paused long enough to look at everyone in the room. “I need to get home – tonight. No one else can calm her down.”

Ryan Seacrest, the host, walked over and placed his hand on Clay’s shoulder. “You do what you have to do,” he stated. “We’ll cover for you here.”

Clay nodded his response, then quickly left the studio to go and catch a flight home to Raleigh.

“Ahhhhh!!!” Lenore continued to scream at the top of her lungs. She had been screaming most of the day, and it was a miracle she’d yet to lose her voice. Though she’d been yelled at, spanked, and yelled at some more, she still went on screaming. “Ahhhhh!!!”

“Enough!” Amy, her big sister, yelled yet again.

Lenore opened her mouth to scream again, but saw the front door open and Clay walk in.

“Clay!” She shrieked, doing a 100-yard dash towards him. She leaped into his awaiting arms.

Clay had heard his ten-year-old baby sister screaming as soon as he had stepped out of the cab. So, of course, he had gone inside to see what was wrong, only to have her fly at him.

Their eldest brother, Jeff, came out into the room when he didn’t hear anymore screaming. “Wow. There is a way to shut her up,” he commented. “I was beginning to think we’d never have peace and quiet again.”

“Has she really been screaming all this time?” Clay asked disbelievingly as he came up the stairs, and into the living room, with her in his arms.

“Yes!” Amy exclaimed exasperated. “We tried everything to shut her up, but nothing worked! Until now, that is.”

Clay shook his head. “Mom always said she’d a set of lungs on her.”

An uncomfortable silence came over them then. The only sound that could be heard, was Lenore snuggling her head into Clay’s neck. Clay kissed her head.

“Well, I guess you got your wish, huh?” Jeff piped up suddenly, glaring at his little sister in his brother’s arms. “I hope you’re happy!”

The other three watched, as he stormed out of the house slamming the door behind him, quietly.

“What wish?” Clay said confused. He looks to his oldest sister for an answer, but she only shook her head and left the room. He looked down at Lenore, who was now crying softly. “What wish, Hun?”

Lenore said nothing, as she hugged him tighter in response. Her birthday wish had been to see Clay; their parents had said no. They’d stated it would be a waste of money to go down there for only one night. This statement, of course, had started an argument – an argument she desperately wanted to forget.

Clay sighed as he carried her and his bags down the hall to his room. Once there, he set his bags by the closet and Lenore on the bed. He eyed her carefully as he saw her quickly jump up, so that she wouldn’t be sitting. Something wasn’t right – he could tell.

Lenore knew that Clay knew that something was up. He always did. She stared down, pretending to be highly interested in his rug. She heard him sigh, and glanced up at him tearfully. She spotted paper and a pen on his night table and picked them up. She scribbled him a quick message. Spanked. It said. Bottom sore. Need help to make better.

Clay read the note after she’d passed it to him and shook his head not to sure on how he felt about that. “How bad?” He asked.

Bad. She wrote.Daddy didn’t do it.

Clay closed his eyes momentarily, knowing their brother had probably done it while she screamed. “I’ll be right back,” he told her, then left to go find cream that would help. He found it, then returned to his room. “Lie down on your stomach.”

Lenore silently did as told, and lay across his double bed. She felt herself blushing as her brother slipped her pants down to see how bad her bottom was.

“You gotta stop making him mad,” Clay replicated while applying the cream to her bottom. “If you didn’t make him mad by giving him a headache, you wouldn’t have been spanked.” He finished, and pulled her pants back up for her. He set the cream aside as he sat down on his bed next to her and rubbed her back. “I’ll talk to him, all right?”

She nodded slightly, her head still buried in her arms. She hated being the one who always got yelled at and spanked. That was part of the reason she loved Clay so much – he had never once yelled at or spanked her. Everyone else in their family had at some point in time. She turned around and lied back down on her stomach, placing her head face down in his lap. She felt him play with her hair as she cried, and felt somewhat comforted.

“It’ll be all right, honey,” Clay told her as he played with her hair. “I promise.”

“Don’t go making promises you can’t keep,” a voice said.

Clay looked up, only to find his other sister standing in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. “What are you talking about? What promise can I not keep?”

“The one you just made her,” Amy replied. “Nothing will ever be all right again, Clayton.”

“You don’t know that for a fact,” Clay pointed out. “And I believe things will be all right again some day.”

That night, while Lenore slept, the oldest three made the funeral arrangements. Though there were some arguments, eventually everything was to everyone’s liking.

While Clay and his siblings were making funeral arrangements, the rest of the American Idol cast were doing the results show, though their thoughts and prayers were all directed towards Clay and his family.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Ryan Seacrest began. “Clay Aiken will not be here tonight, due to a family emergency. Members of his family were killed in a car crash earlier today, and we’d appreciate it if you would send your thoughts and prayer’s out to him and his family during their time of need.” He paused, then looked down to finally read what was written on his cue card. He smiled slightly. “On a brighter note, Clay, Buddy, you’re safe this week, and will be able to go on to the next round.”

Everyone cheered loudly for Clay, happy that he was safe for another week, but feeling bad for him and his family at the loss of their loved ones.

The day of the funerals was a gorgeous day, despite everyone’s somber moods. Everything had been well planned for – well, almost everything.

Clay had taken a seat in the front pew between his sisters. His brother had sat down on the other side of Lenore.

Lenore looked up slightly when she felt a hand touch hers, and was relieved to discover that it was only Clay. She silently squeezed his hand back after he had squeezed hers. Despite the horrible circumstances, she was glad to have him there next to her. She knew she could never tell her other brother that, as he’d more than likely spaz at her again. It was already bad enough that she had to sit next to him.

People who had been murmuring softly as they waited for the service to begin, quieted down as the Priest reached the pulpit. They all watched as he made the sign of the cross in front of each casket, slowly making his way down the five casket line. Once done, he turned to face the many friends and family who were all now in mourning. “We shall begin with a prayer,” he said, officially starting the service.

Lenore sat there listening quietly as everyone else recited the prayer. She was too full of mixed emotions to do anything other than sit there, stare, and listen. She was afraid if she should accidentally say the wrong thing that her eldest brother, Jeff, would yell at her again.

Clay noticed that his little sister wasn’t paying any attention and gently nudged her.

Lenore felt Clay nudge her, and gave him a small sheepish grin, before looking back down at her feet.

The Priest carried on with the ceremony, and only stopped when it was time for Clay to give the eulogies.

Clay slowly made his way to the front of the Church after having had to pry his hand away from Lenore’s. He reached the pulpit and turned to face everyone. He took a deep, self-assuring, breath before starting.

“Well, what can I say about Mom?” He began. “Other than that she was the kindest, loveliest woman alive…..”

Lenore sat silently, as still as a statue, while she listened to Clay give the eulogies he had written. All was fine until he mentioned their father – well, her father anyway – he was her three oldest siblings stepfather. As Clay began to talk about him, the events leading up to the accident began to re-play in her mind.

Clay, and the service, were abruptly interrupted by one lone shrill scream.

“Noooo!” Lenore shrieked, suddenly jumping up. She quickly climbed over Jeff’s lap before he had the chance to grab her. “Dad-dy!”

Everyone looked on in stunned silence as she ran over to her father’s casket. It was still open, as it was an open casket service for him. The other caskets were closed, as the others had been mutilated in the crash.

“Dad-dy,” Lenore let out in a choked up whimper. She stood next to his casket sobbing, with her hands placed upon his chest. She knew she’d never forget how he felt right then – ever.

Clay went over to her, and crouched down low enough to whisper in her ear. “Honey, you have to let him go. God needed him for something special. He’s safe now.”

“Promise?” Lenore whimpered softly, still staring at her father.

“I promise,” Clay answered solemnly.

Lenore turned and fell into his arms, tears streaming down her young face. She felt him pick her up, only to pass her to her other brother moment later. She buried her face in Jeff’s shoulder and sat cuddled into him as Clay finished the eulogy.